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Chad P. Bown @chadpbown.com
Jul 11, 06:25 AM

Does President Trump want a trade war with Spain? What if it escalates to one with the full European Union? Thanks to Mugo Odigwe for the invitation to join @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy to discuss the President's latest trade threats taking place at the NATO meeting in Ankara.

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"And joining me now is Chad Bowne, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and co-author of the new book, How to Win a Trade War. Chad, thank you so much for your time today. We just heard the administration emphasize those positive developments with Spain. So how should we view the president's threat to cut off trade? Is that a real policy option or more of a negotiating tool to pressure Spain over NATO spending? I think you do have to treat any threat by President Trump that he is going to do something on international trade like tariffs. You do have to treat it seriously. And despite the Supreme Court ruling back in February that a lot of his 2025 tariffs were not okay, he has a lot of other legal authorities that he could use to impose tariffs on Spain. So you do have to treat it seriously. But that being said, the news that we're hearing out of Ankara this morning is definitely a set of positive developments. We've heard that word positive, positive over and over again. We know Spain is part of the European Union though. So just how complicated would it be if the US tried to target them? And what's really at stake in the US-Spain trade relationship? It's less complicated than you think. I mean, it's not done frequently targeting an individual member of the European Union like Spain with tariffs. But there have been instances in which the United States has had to go after individual countries in Europe. For example, when Europe was imposing or granting subsidies to Airbus, we had to line up duties on Spain and France and the other countries that did the subsidizing. Or the countries that have digital services taxes. The US trade representative has come up with examples of Spanish products in those sorts of instances that could be targeted. So it is possible to do it. The bigger issue though is this would clearly escalate into a full US-Europe trade dispute, right? And since the Turnberry deal of last year, things have been relatively calm between the United States and Brussels, the European Union more generally. And that would be a big deal, right? The Spanish relationship important, but the US-Europe relationship overall, which would be put under threat here if the Trump administration did decide to put tariffs on Spain would be an even bigger issue. All right, we'll see how long those positive developments last. Chad Bowne, thank you so much for your insight today. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me."

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Chad P. Bown @chadpbown.com ยท Jul 9, 04:01 PM

Does President Trump want a trade war with Spain? What if it escalates to one with the full European Union? Thanks to Mugo Odigwe for the invitation to join @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy to discuss the President's latest trade threats taking place at the NATO meeting in Ankara.